| The question of whether and how religious functionaries such as imams and hatips should be educated has been an extremely controversial issue in Turkey for most of this century. In the midst of sweeping anti-religious reforms to create a new nation with a new identity under the guidance of rationalism and scientism, religious education was eliminated in 1924. After the introduction of the multi-party system in the late 1940s and the early 1950s, religious education re-emerged as a result of grassroots demands and pressures. Since then, the secular governments have taken a great interest in controlling and directing religious education.;Despite governmental discouragement, the Imam-Hatip school system gained momentum in the 1960s and particularly in the late 1970s. These schools have shown remarkable vitality, attracting ever-increasing numbers of students. Contrary to the original legislative intent, the Imam-Hatip schools developed from a vocational system for the training of religious personnel into an alternative school system in which students receive both a religious and secular academic education at the secondary level.;This study explores the relationships established between the people and the governments of Turkey under the electoral framework of the multi-party system and demonstrates that the public could and did force the government to answer the demand for Imam-Hatip schools. The Imam-Hatip school system from 1924 to the present is studied in relation to major social, political and educational developments in order to determine how socio-political factors shaped the present system of religious education in Turkey. As the case of the Imam-Hatip schools demonstrates, educational reform in Turkey has been motivated by the people's ideas and beliefs rather than imposed from above by the government.;Today, a major "post-Kemal self-discovery" is taking place in Turkey. Concerned not only about Islam, this movement is focused on religion's potential for inculcating broad and sophisticated cognitive, emotional and ethical skills for dealing with the chaotic global, social, economic and ideological upheavals that mark the contemporary world. |
